Philosophy and the Precautionary Principle: Science, Evidence, and Environmental Policy

274 Pages·2014·1.306 MB·English

by  Daniel Steel

PHILOSOPHY AND THE
PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE
Scholarsinphilosophy,law,economics,andotherfieldshavewidely
debatedhowscience,environmentalprecaution,andeconomicinter-
ests should be balanced in urgent contemporary problems such as
climate change. One controversial focus of these discussions is the
precautionary principle, according to which scientific uncertainty
should not be a reason for delay in the face of serious threats to
the environment or health. While the precautionary principle has
beenveryinfluential,nogenerallyaccepteddefinitionofitexistsand
critics charge that it is incoherent or hopelessly vague. This book
presentsanddefendsaninterpretationoftheprecautionaryprinciple
from the perspective of philosophy of science, looking particularly
at how it connects to decisions, scientific procedures, and evidence.
Throughcarefulanalysisofnumerouscasestudies,itshowshowthis
interpretation leads to important insights on scientific uncertainty,
intergenerational justice, and the relationship between values and
policy-relevantscience.
daniel steel is Associate Professor in the Department of Phi-
losophy at Michigan State University. He is the author of Across the
Boundaries:ExtrapolationinBiologyandSocialScience(2008)andthe
co-editor (with Francesco Guala) of The Philosophy of Social Science
Reader(2011).

PHILOSOPHY AND THE
PRECAUTIONARY
PRINCIPLE
Science, Evidence, and Environmental Policy
DANIEL STEEL
MichiganStateUniversity
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Contents
Listoffigureandtables pageix
Preface xi
1 Theprecautioncontroversy 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Puttingthepiecestogether 9
2 Answeringthedilemmaobjection 17
2.1 Introduction 17
2.2 Thedilemma 19
2.3 Ameta-decisionrule 21
2.4 Proportionality 26
2.5 Twomisunderstandingsandanobjection 37
2.6 Conclusions 42
3 Theunityoftheprecautionaryprinciple 44
3.1 Theprecautionaryprinciple? 44
3.2 Argumentsfordisunity 46
3.3 Catastrophe,maximin,andminimaxregret 49
3.4 Robustadaptiveplanning 62
3.5 Conclusions 68
4 Thehistoricalargumentforprecaution 69
4.1 Learningfromhistory 69
4.2 Thecaseforprecaution 70
4.3 Risksandrisks 81
4.4 Anepistemicobjection 89
4.5 Conclusions 94
5 Scientificuncertainty 95
5.1 Uncertaintyaboutuncertainty 95
5.2 Definingscientificuncertainty 97
vii
viii Contents
5.3 Probabilityandthelimitsofprecaution 108
5.4 Conclusions 118
6 Countingthefuture 120
6.1 Howtocountthefuture? 120
6.2 Intergenerationalimpartialityanddiscounting 122
6.3 Argumentsforthepuretimepreference 127
6.4 Anewargumentforintergenerationalimpartiality 135
6.5 Conclusions 143
7 Precautionaryscienceandthevalue-freeideal 144
7.1 Scienceandvalues 144
7.2 Theargumentfrominductiverisk 146
7.3 Objectionsandreplies 149
7.4 Rethinkingvaluesinscience 160
7.5 Conclusions 170
8 Values,precaution,anduncertaintyfactors 171
8.1 Casestudyneeded 171
8.2 Uncertaintyfactors 172
8.3 Replacingthevalue-freeideal 178
8.4 Epistemicprecaution 192
8.5 Conclusions 197
9 Concludingcasestudies 199
9.1 Recappingthecentralthemes 199
9.2 Theprecautionaryprincipleandclimatechangemitigation 200
9.3 Recombinantbovinegrowthhormone 205
9.4 REACH 212
9.5 Futurepathsforprecaution 217
Appendix 218
1 Formalizingtheprecautionaryprinciple 218
2 Gardiner’sRawlsianmaximinrule 225
3 Munthe’spropositions6and7areequivalent 226
4 Triggeringtheprecautionaryprinciple 227
5 Chichilniskyandsustainablewelfare 229
References 234
Index 254